Ecological Hermeneutics Essay -- Science Technology Ecology Papers

To what outcome does Hans-Georg Gadamers theory of science issue a basis for the adjunction of an bionomical hermeneutics? As hermeneutics is the art of interpretation and understanding, ecological hermeneutics is understood as the act of interpreting the impact of technology within the lifeworld. I study the potential for ecological hermeneutics based upon Gadamers theory of science. First, I epitome his theory of science. Second, I delineate ecological hermeneutics as an application of this theory. Third, I discuss what can be expected from the act of ecological hermeneutics. Finally, I make some general comments about the affinity between ecological hermeneutics and brute common-sense. Our question is to what extent does Hans-Georg Gadamers theory of science provide a basis for an articulation of an ecological hermeneutics? As hermeneutics is the art or use of interpretation and understanding, ecological hermeneutics is to be understood as the activity of interpreting the i mpact of uses of technology within the context of the lifeworld. (1) Our considerations of the uses of technology (2) take the spheres of scientific research on one hand and industrial occupation processes on the other, specifically capitalism. The similarity which makes these two spheres felicitous to ecological hermeneutics is their individual detachment from the lifeworld, a detachment which characterizes each of their decision procedures.Gadamers hermeneutic enterprise is frameworked on a retrieval of the Aristotelian model of science which calls into question the modern notion of ratiocination detached a priori from experience, from the lifeworld. Through this hermeneutic enterprise Gadamer develops a theory of science whic... ...g dodging designed to stimulate sales?(15) Op. cit., trans. David Ross (Oxford Oxford University Press, 1984), p. 3.(16) Reason in the Age of Science, p. 8(17) Ibid., p. 105. Italics mine.(18) In passing it is interesting to note that from the pe rspective of ecological hermeneutics, such(prenominal) attempts such as Julian Simons to discount any feel of human life which cannot be quantitatively measured are passing tenuous. As he sees it, the simplest and most accurate measure of health is aloofness of life, summed up as the average life expectancy. But in an causal agent to remain objective, Simon blatantly overlooks the possibility that life expectancy might fall in nothing to do with quality of life, as in the cases of terminally mad patients kept alive on respirators. See The Ultimate Resource (Princeton, saucy Jersey Princeton University Press, 1981), p. 130.